Continental Industries Group, Inc. v. Ustuntas: Revisiting Aiding and Abetting Breach of Fiduciary Duty Claims

Aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty claims are litigated frequently, and this blog has addressed them here and here.  The Appellate Division, First Department, recently opined on aiding-and-abetting liability in Cont. Indus. Group, Inc. v. Ustuntas, 211 A.D.3d 601 (1st Dep’t 2022).  As the court’s decision shows, aiding-and-abetting claims are readily susceptible to dismissal,…

Jadidian v. Goldstein:  Pleading Fraud to Take Advantage of a Longer Fiduciary-Duty Limitations Period

This blog often addresses the statute of limitations for breach of fiduciary duty claims (see here and here, for example).  Which limitations period applies to a breach of fiduciary duty claim is a frequently recurring issue.  This is because there is no single statute of limitations for fiduciary-duty claims, but three distinct possibilities: Jadidian v.…

Neurological Surgery, P.C. v. MLMIC Ins. Co.: When Being a Policy Holder Is Not Enough to Impose Fiduciary Duties on An Insurance Company

In certain situations, an insurance company owes its policyholders fiduciary duties.  Specifically, when an insured calls upon its carrier to defend it in a lawsuit, the carrier generally will owe fiduciary duties to the insured.  But in other scenarios, policyholders face an uphill battle in proving that they have the requisite “special relationship” with their…

Mohinani v. Charney: 
Revisiting Derivative Claims and Damages in Real-Estate Investment Disputes

It is somewhat rare for a business dispute to be litigated all the way through trial.  Protracted litigation is costly, time-consuming, and unpredictable. When that does happen, however, the results can be illuminating—especially when the trial court’s decision is upheld on appeal. That is what happened in the recent decision of the Appellate Division, First Department,…